The Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe (BCSTP) has released the results of its 2nd Demand-Side Survey on Financial Inclusion and Literacy, providing a comprehensive diagnostic of the country’s progress under its 2021–2025 National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS).

Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion: A defining achievement of the 2021–2025 strategy according to the national survey results is the significant progress made toward gender equity in the formal financial system.

• Index Growth: The Women’s Financial Inclusion Index surged from 0.18 in 2017 to 0.34 in 2025.
• Closing the Gap: The gender banking gap narrowed dramatically from 20 percentage points to just 4.8 percentage points over the survey period.
• Leadership in Enterprise: Women now manage 61% of the country’s Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), although they continue to experience the weight of financing obstacles most acutely.

An additional innovation of the survey was the adoption of the Financial Capability Barometer methodology in the survey, being able to measure the knowledge, skills, competencies and culture on using financial services.